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There is a dungeon called 『The Labyrinth of Time’s Lament』two days’ walk north of Dallas.
The Labyrinth of Time’s Lament was a dungeon that had yet to be cleared, but there are many other dungeons around the world that have yet to be explored.
This dungeon had a lot of users, and since the adventurers were properly thinning out the monsters on a daily basis, the possibility of a stampede should have been extremely low.
The maximum number of floors in the Labyrinth of Time’s Lament is 45 at the moment.
The shallow levels are relatively beginner-friendly, with goblins, hobgoblins, and slimes appearing.
As you move further into the levels, orcs and ogres appear, and the enemies become stronger and stronger. Steadily and slowly attacking the place was helping adventurers to successfully build their skills.
There is a boss room on every tenth floor, with the tenth floor boss being the goblin leader, the twentieth floor being the orc leader, the thirtieth floor being the ogre leader, and the fortieth floor being the chimera.
And now, monsters were crawling out from the labyrinth of lament.
The last time a stampede occurred was 120 years ago. The scene was unfolding in a way that no one’s brain would immediately understand or want to understand.
The four members of 『Sasaraka』, a mid-level B-rank adventuring party that is mainly active in Dallas, were on their way to the Labyrinth of Time’s Lament on this day.
When they reached the plains, only a day’s distance away from the dungeon, all the party members who saw the far side of the plains stood still for a while in utter amazement.
Then they managed to reboot their brains and realized that a stampede had occurred, and they ran to the adventurer’s guild in Dallas, using their physical enhancements to the limit.
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On this day, the Adventurer’s Guild was crowded with adventurers, travelers trying to get information, merchants, nobles, and all sorts of other people.
The reason for this is the information from the members of 『Sasaraka』 who came to report to the Adventurer’s Guild yesterday.
Currently, the guild was writing to the lord with the information they had sorted out, while making arrangements to send an urgent request.
Emergency requests are almost compulsory for adventurers of C rank or higher to participate in. If you have no choice but to refuse, you must pay a fine of 10 platinum coins.
Adventurers of D rank or lower are also allowed to participate, though at their own risk.
After all preparations are complete, the guild master sounds the alarm twice with the special alarm tool that is installed in every adventurer’s guild in this world.
This magic tool has been specially processed to deliver alarms to a radius of 100 kilometers.
When the alarm sounds, citizens evacuate and adventurers gather at the adventurer’s guild.
After these two alarms, one more similar alarm would sound. This is the same alarm from the lord’s house, urging citizens to evacuate, but the guards and the lord’s private army gather in the square near the lord’s house.
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When I heard the report from Galwin and the incomprehensible alarm, I couldn’t understand anything.
I looked over at Dan, Sarah, and Airi, each of them reacting in their own way.
Dan looked annoyed and reluctant, and Sarah looked shocked and pale.
Airi, like me, didn’t seem to fully understand what was going on.
Dan says angrily and hatefully, as if he is very angry.
「No way, Stampede!」
Sarah asked everyone, not hiding her uneasy look.
「What’s everyone going to do? I think we all have to take emergency requests because of our rank. …… I’m not retired either, so I need to go to the guild.」
「Okay, listen up, everybody.」
Dan, with power in his eyes and a serious expression on his face, spoke to all of them.
I looked at Dan, judging from his demeanor that this was an important conversation, and so did everyone else.
Then we listened to Dan.
The story was that Alfred had demanded Sarah as his wife, and that Dan had been looking for a solution to this unreasonable selfishness, but had been having trouble finding one.
He thought that this stampede would be a turning point in a way, and he explained it now.
After hearing the explanation, she realized the reason for Dan’s recent strange behavior and felt the pain of his love for his family, so she cried and apologized to Dan and hugged him.
Dan hugged Sara and began to talk to her, 「I have a proposal」.
「You’ll have to visit the Adventurer’s Guild…… to see how big it is first. However, we’ll have to solve Alfred’s case anyway, but now we should be able to get out of the city without any problems. During the Stampede, citizens will be evacuated and I don’t think the gatekeepers will be functioning. I don’t think they’d let an adventurer with an urgent request out of the city.」
Dan broke off there, and after a short pause, he opened his mouth again.
「And when the stampede is over, my family and I will leave the city and head for the capital of the neighbouring Midogal Kingdom, but since we can’t all go to the adventurer’s guild together, leaving Louis and Airi in their current situation, I need a favour from …… Lisa.」
Lisa didn’t expect to be asked a favour here, and was a little surprised, but quickly calmed down and encouraged him to continue.
「What?」
「I want you to take Louis and Airi ahead of you to the capital of Midogal Kingdom. Of course we’ll pay the fine for avoiding the urgent request, please!」
Dan said, and bowed to Lisa.
Lisa put her fingers to her chin and seemed to be thinking about what she had just asked for.
Then, after a while, he opens his mouth with a look of determination on his face.
「All right! In return, you must all come to Midogal without fail! I won’t forgive you if you don’t!」
Hearing these words, Dan raised his head, took out a bag of gold coins from his magic pouch, checked the contents, and handed it to Lisa.
「That solves that! There are eighteen white gold coins in this bag. Ten of them will be used to go to the guild once more to avoid urgent requests, and the remaining eight will be used for the three of you to travel. Also, if there are any items that you need for the trip that you are missing, you can take them out of this house, just put them in the magic pouch and take them with you. We’ll catch up later, I promise! What about Garwin?」
「What? Don’t ask me the obvious, okay? If that’s what happened to Dan and Sarah, I’m leaving Dallas too! When this stampede is over, I’m coming with you two to the Midogal Kingdom. When we get there, let’s take on some more requests together! There are probably some dungeons we haven’t been to yet!」
「Lisa, take care of Louis and Airi. Keep them both safe.」
「I know! I know! He’ s Sarah’s precious, precious child! And don’t worry about Airi.」
「Thank you. We’ll catch up.」
In the midst of all this, my mind was more occupied with anger at Alfred than with the danger of the stampede.
But right now, there’s nothing I can do. I was frustrated with myself for not being able to do …… anything when I was getting so strong.